9 minute read
OPINION
THE MESA TRIBUNE | JULY 10, 2022
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Griner case illustrates plight of detained Americans
BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ
Tribune Columnist
The open letter to President Biden, written by hand and released on the Fourth of July, tore at the heart. This is the unfortunate plight of Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner, wrongfully detained for 143 days and counting in a godforsaken gulag 6,000 miles from home.
“As I sit here in a Russian prison,” Griner wrote, “alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments, I’m terrified I might be here forever.” She went on to beseech Biden: “I realize you are dealing with so much, but please don’t forget about me and the other American Detainees. Please do all you can to bring us home.”
We have been told by the White House press secretary that Biden has read the letter. We also have been told his Administration will “use every tool we possibly can” to bring Griner home. I hope so, because Russian news reports have said Griner, arrested on Feb. 17th, faces up to 10 years in prison for allegedly having .702 grams of hash oil in two vape cartridges in her luggage. She pleaded guilty to drug charges on July 7.
Biden and the U.S. State Department should use every tool in America’s toolbox to secure Griner’s release – exactly as he should on behalf of the more than 60 Americans currently held hostage in foreign countries.
Like Paul Whelan, a former Marine wrongfully detained in Russia since 2018. Like “the Citgo 6,” petroleum executives wrongfully held in Venezuela since 2017. And like Alina Lopez-Miyares, wrongfully locked up in a Cuban prison since January 2017.
In a more just world, we would care about all these Americans with the same vigor and at the same loud volume. The truth? As a culture, we have a limited attention span, a finite amount of compassion we spend in dollops – a sprinkling for the homeless here, a few spoonsful for the struggling poor there, and a drip or two for Brittney Griner.
Is that right? I don’t think so. I wish we had an endless reserve of compassion, enough to go around in the right proportions.
Even so, I disagree wholeheartedly with Mercury head coach Vanessa Nygaard, who took dead aim at America in comments supporting Griner last week.
“If it was LeBron, he’d be home, right?” Nygaard declared. “It’s a statement about the value of women. It’s a statement about the value of a black person. It’s a statement about the value of a gay person. All of those. We know it.”
Actually, it’s a statement about how little we pay attention to wrongful detainees and their suffering. Virtually no one save the families of the imprisoned has made a peep about wrongfully imprisoned Americans anywhere, about Whelan, the Citgo 6, or Lopez-Miyares. This silence has nothing to do with race, gender, or who someone loves. It has everything to do with our culture’s capacity to empathize.
Nygaard seems to think if Griner was male, white and straight, America would be threatening nuclear war. Reality says otherwise. Nygaard is correct about one thing, though. If Lebron James was wrongfully imprisoned, Americans would be rioting in the streets.
That has everything to do with celebrity, which is the only reason you have heard about Brittney Griner’s case at all. If Griner couldn’t dribble, couldn’t dunk, wasn’t a six-time WBNA All-Star, her imprisonment would be occurring in silence.
Nygaard is dead wrong about for whom we care and why. We reserve the greatest compassion for the most famous among us – that is a perverted truth about the American way.
I hope Brittney Griner comes home soon. And I hope we bring every other wrongfully detained American home with her.
Pima County Dems July 4 disrespect may backfire
BY JD HAYWORTH Tribune Columnist
Chris Matthews, during the “pre-MSNBC Celebrity” phase of his career, penned an article in 1991 for “The New Republic” in which he detailed the parentally partisan roles of the two major parties, based on the basic family unit.
“‘Daddy’ (the Republican) locks the door at night and brings home the bacon. ‘Mommy’ (the Democrat) worries when the kids are sick and makes sure each one gets treated fairly.”
Today that convenient partisan shorthand is as outdated as the 1950’s TV sitcoms which Matthews claimed as the inspiration for his theory. Three decades later, the “family political dynamic” must include a third group of active participants.
Biology, psychology, and current events indicate that the new “contributors” to the political process are spoiled brats who throw public tantrums. And their profane exhibitions are decidedly “family unfriendly.”
“Peoples’ Exhibit A” comes from right here in Arizona.
The Pima Country Democratic Party promoted an event—a protest, actually— for Independence Day. Sadly, the “F” in the first word of the event’s name did not stand for the “Fourth.”
That tweet subsequently disappeared faster than you could fry an egg on a sidewalk in Sahuarita during the summer.
In its place came a longer twitter thread, which began in contrite fashion: “PCDP posted a graphic which, we agree, was in poor taste…That was a mistake, and we will do better.”
So far, so good…but so-so must have been the reaction of the Pima County Dems involved in drafting that internet response. As is often the case, a party committee tasked with formulating a reply is usually more concerned with arriving at a consensus rather than quelling a controversy. And this one was no different.
The subsequent two threads of the replacement tweet grew more shrill and combative: “Make no mistake, however. We support the event which will be on July 4 at 7p.m. at Reid Park.
“The event was organized to help women in our community grieve for the loss of their bodily autonomy, which we consider an elemental right. Our posting of the graphic upset some people. We urge you to save your outrage for the women in this state who will die of botched abortions. Arizona is not a good place to be a woman right now.”
Apparently, Reid Park in Tucson on the Fourth of July was not a good place to be for radical leftists who hoped to draw attention to a stance they would characterize as “pro choice.”
Why?
Because Tucson media outlets made a conscious choice not to cover the event with the obscene name.
Usually, newsroom assignment editors make every effort to cover events organized by leftist grievance mongers
But in this case, the theme was so objectionable that it resulted in non-coverage.
Clearly, the dropping of the “f-bomb” in polite company has grown in frequency, and neither political ideology nor partisan label insures that it will not be uttered. But this coarsening of our culture cannot be condoned under any circumstance… least of all to curse Independence Day.
A Democrat-turned-Republican offered a humorous take on the differences be-
tween our two major parties, including a gentle nudge to the party of his youth, and an exaltation of the party he joined, while including a mention of Independence Day.
“Republicans think every day is July 4,” said Ronald Reagan, “while Democrats think every day in April 15!” But Arizona Dems may find another date on this year’s calendar even more taxing: Election Day.
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